Books by Gary Graybill

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Slow Sunday, November 14th

OK, back to watching what our North Korean buddies have been doing lately. Russia said Wednesday that dialogue remains the only option for ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program as Pyongyang accused South Korea and the U.S. of blocking the stalled talks.

“As room for conflict remains in Northeast Asia and Asia Pacific region, I believe that countries have no choice but to hold dialogue and cooperate,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at a joint news conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. “I believe there is no other option.”

A statement said the two leaders agreed to cooperate to revive the talks, which brought together the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

North Korea pulled out of the talks last year to protest international condemnation of a long-range rocket launch seen as a test of its missile technology.

North Korea has recently shown willingness to rejoin the negotiations. But at the same time it has continued to blame its chief foes, the United States and South Korea, for the stalemate.

Pyongyang says if the two countries are serious about resuming negotiations they should stop their military drills that it claims pose a nuclear threat.

The drills are in response to the sinking of a South Korean warship in March. A multinational investigation led by Seoul concluded a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine sank the 1,200-ton warship. North Korea has denied involvement in the sinking, which killed 46 South Korean sailors.

“The six-nation talks would be naturally resumed” if South Korea and the U.S. stop interfering, North Korea’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said. The commentary was carried by the country’s official Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea carried out two nuclear tests in 2006 and in 2009 in the country’s northeastern area, drawing international sanctions each time.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who like Medvedev is in Seoul for the Group of 20 summit this week, urged North Korea to rejoin the nuclear talks. It may be, however, that he is way too optimistic about the ability to make progress because he told reporters, “We expect that they will return to six-party talks and cooperate fully in realizing a denuclearized Korean peninsula.” Ban is also a former South Korean foreign minister.

~~~~~~

A New York man looking to buy drugs misdialed and got the sheriff's "Crime Stoppers" line instead. Erie County Sheriff's Detective Alan Rozansky said he got a call around noon on Monday and answered with his usual "Crime Stoppers." The caller apparently didn't hear that and told Rozansky he was looking "to score" drugs.Rozansky told WIVB-TV that he was surprised but played along and arranged a meeting with undercover officers. The officers didn't arrest the caller but used him as an informant to lead them to another transaction taking place down the road.There, police arrested a 35-year-old woman trying to sell her prescription painkillers to a Buffalo man.The careless caller is off the hook for now.

~~~~~~

On this day in history in 1832 1st streetcar (horse-drawn) (John Mason) debuts in NYC; fare 12c rode on 4th Avenue between Prince & 14th Sts; in 1894 Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez"

~~~~~~

Smart Dog?

Tim O'Rourke was walking his Irish Setter in the country side. He picked up a stick and threw it, the dog went and retrieved it and brought it back. Tim then threw it in a different direction and the dog once again went and retrieved it and brought it back.

Tim then threw it in another direction and it landed in a small lake. The dog went down to the water's edge, walked across the water, picked up the stick and brought it back.

Well, Tim was astounded. He couldn't believe what he had seen and threw stick in the lake again, and the dog once again walked across the water to bring the stick back. As he went into town, he promised that he would show his dog's wonderful new trick to the first person he came across.

Once in town the first person the dog owner came across was the town drunk Declan Dunphy. Tim dragged Declan to the lake to show him what his dog could do.

Once again, the dog owner threw the stick into the small lake and the dog went to the water's edge, walked across the water, picked up the stick and brought it back to it's owner. Once the drunk saw that, he turned to the dog owner and said;

"Why that's great, mister!
But when are you going to teach your dog how to swim?"